Most People Are Living to Live
I'm including myself here but I'm gradually striving to escape this bucket.
See, there are only two modalities of living:
Living to live
Living to X
In living to X, you get to discover what the X is. Ultimately, I truly believe you are equal to X. So, if you lived to live, you would never find yourself.
Let me explain.
Living to live
Your everyday experience is consumed by being able to afford your continued living. So you're in essence selling today for tomorrow. Literally so.
You sell your time, usually the 8 working hours in a day, in exchange for money so you can subsist to live another day. It's usually not sold for the next day per se but for the next paycheck date either in 15 or 30 days.
You're very fragile in this way of living because if you don't perform for a sequence of days, there won't even be a market of buyers for your hours. Or there will be, but willing to pay a lower cost than you were used to selling hours for.
You see how toxic this is? No wonder you're always anxious. And it's not entirely because you don't have trust in your skills but rather the nature of what you are doing for a living.
A time salesperson is stressful by nature.
The solution: Living to X
Ah, Eden.
To be here you've either extremely lowered your cost of living and have some savings to back you, or you've made enough money to cover your living expenses.
In whichever way you find yourself here, you're in prime real-estate. You're rich of time - you can afford to keep the hours to yourself for a long period of time. No need to sell.
What happens next? If you don't get caught up in the very tempting status games that are played in adult life, you look for X.
And I couldn't tell you what X is. X is deeply, deeply personal, so much so that I would argue it's innate. Your "purpose"? Maybe to some people it's easier to frame in that way. I like to look at it as the craft that makes you happy.
What makes you happy? Maybe you already know, maybe you don't. My guess is that most people fall under the category of "having a hunch". But if you're living to live, you can't ever really know. You're too busy selling time.
What's my X? I don't know yet, I only have a hunch.
I desperately want and need to find out. X is who I am! But then I remember it's a life-long process.
Strive to live for X (for at least 6 months) and you'll hone your hunch.
Combine that with a healthy leap of faith and you'll find X. You'll find yourself.